Speaker after speaker implored the Agricultural Land Commission Monday to say no to a controversial overpass that will punch through some of Langley’s oldest farmland.

Several hundred people packed the banquet room at the Langley Events Centre to voice their displeasure over the Mufford-Glover Overpass. The overpass is planned to connect 64th Avenue between 204th Street and 216th Street, jumping over rail lines and Highway 10. While proponents say it will get traffic around frequent trains, opponents say it is a highway to nowhere that can’t justify paving 29 acres of farmland.

ALC chair Richard Bullock began the meeting by setting out the commission’s mandate.

“This is not a referendum,” he said, noting that it does not matter how many people are for or against removing land from the Agricultural Land Reserve.

“Our mandate is to preserve farmland and encourage that land to be farmed,” he said, a statement which won him applause from the crowd.

The speakers then asked again and again for the ALC to fulfill that mandate.

“There’s absolutely no need to ruin good farmland to do what needs to be done,” said Eric Bysouth, one of the night’s first speakers.

David Davis, a fourth-generation Milner farmer, urged the commission not to try and ameliorate the plan with conditions, but to simply reject it.

“We need a strong commission that is not afraid to say no,” Davis said.

He shared a version of the nursery rhyme Old McDonald that has been sung around his family’s table at breakfast recently.

“A highway here and a railway there, Old McDonald lost his farm,” Davis sang.

Several farmers and landowners along 216th Street and 64th Avenue protested that their roads will become far too busy if the overpass is allowed to go forward, making it difficult for them to operate farm machinery.

Others questioned where the supporters of the project were.

“Where is this tens of thousands in support?” asked Sonya Paterson.

Opponents of the overpass came from the Milner area, but also from all across Langley and, in some cases, around the province.

A potato farmer from Pemberton said she represented many of her neighbours in supporting local farmers’ efforts to preserve their land.

Harold Steves of Richmond, who as an NDP MLA in the 1970s created the ALR, spoke against the exclusion, as did current NDP agriculture critic Lana Popham of Saanich.

The oldest speaker was Dorothy Beech, 97.

“Please be sensible,” she said. “We must be successful at keeping every last acre we’ve got.”

There was not one speaker in favour of the Mufford-Glover overpass during the meeting. About 40 people spoke.

The ALC will accept written submissions by mail until Sept. 10. After that, it will go through all the material and will be in a position to make a final decision.